


The Little Wolf

by MaliceManaged



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Babysitting, Fluff, Gen, Tumblr Prompt, Tumblr: imagine-loki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-08-15 06:17:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8045521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaliceManaged/pseuds/MaliceManaged
Summary: Out of all the things Loki would expect to be handed, a toddler wasn't one of them; least of all without any explanation. But that is exactly what he got.





	The Little Wolf

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this prompt: Imagine Loki being randomly given a baby/toddler to look after, to his complete bewilderment, and at first he’s worried it’s some kind of trick but eventually he bonds with the little munchkin to the point of being reluctant to give it back.
> 
> I was going to work on the next chapter of Hospitality, but then I saw that prompt and it gave me an excuse to write about paternal Loki and I will always _always_ take advantage of that. It's a bit longer than I intended but once I got started I just couldn't stop writing. Enjoy.

    It wasn’t very often that Loki Friggason was completely and utterly confused, but now... now was certainly one of those moments.

 

    For months he’d been stuck with the Avengers as a punishment for... something or another that he didn’t actually remember doing. It’d gone about as well as could be expected, which was not at all; the team basically hated him and he, well, he just didn’t care, which tended to translate to a total lack of restraint on his tricks whenever he was bored. Which was quite often considering nobody trusted him enough to let him do anything.

 

    The only exception to that was Melina, the newest recruit to the team; a young woman of fair skin, green-dyed long hair and deep brown eyes who happened to have the ability to teleport. She was the only one who didn’t outright ignore or avoid him besides Thor, though he liked to pretend she was invisible most of the time just to see how flustered she became. That tended to earn him a lecture and then he would have to apologise to her, which always made her smile, and that made him do it again just to get back to that point.

 

    He had been thinking about setting loose a bit of chaos in one of Stark’s labs when Melina teleported right in front of him with a toddler of about a year or two if he was any judge. “Here, take this!” She said and pushed the child onto him. In his surprise, his first instinct was to take it. He opened his mouth to protest or demand an explanation, but she cut him off. “Don’t ask, I’ll come back later, bye!”

 

    And then she was gone again.

 

    Loki blinked and looked down at the child in his arms, who was looking back up at him with big blue eyes full of curiosity. He frowned, wondering what in the Nine this was about. Was it a test; to see what he would do? Or a trick? Maybe the child was stolen and he’d be found with it soon and blamed for it. It couldn’t possibly be anything good. Who in their right mind would give _him_ a child to look after? Even before the whole New York thing, he didn’t exactly have a reputation for being trustworthy.

 

    He glanced around suspiciously for a moment then decided to simply go along with it for now and sat down sideways on the couch, placing the child in front of him. He guessed it was a girl from the purple dress it wore. Then again, it could be that its parents didn’t much care for gender stereotypes and just dressed their child in whatever. He certainly wasn’t going to take a closer look and find out.

 

    He placed his hands on either side of the child and looked down at her. “What am I supposed to do with you, little one?” He asked quietly, “I haven’t cared for an infant in centuries; I’m not sure I remember how this works.”

 

    As if in response the child, whose name he didn’t know, he realised, reached up and took his face in her small hands, making him chuckle. If this _was_ a trick, it was a very adorable one.

 

    “I don’t even know your name,” He continued, straightening up and taking the child into his arms again. He left the lounge and walked into the elevator, pressing the button to the floor he shared with Thor. “I have to call you something, don’t I?” He asked, bouncing the child a bit.

 

    She giggled then reached for his free arm, grabbing at something glinting at his wrist, and he lifted it to her eye level; there were several strips of leather tied there, and from each dangled a small golden charm. “You like those, do you?” He asked, turning his wrist a little so she could see them better.

 

    The child babbled happily and grabbed a charm in the shape of a wolf. “Little Wolf, then,” He declared with a smirk, “Fen would be pleased.”

 

 

    Loki was in the kitchen feeding the newly designated ‘Little Wolf’, who was seated on the counter, from a small bowl in his hands when Thor walked in. He stopped at the doorway and looked from his brother to the contented toddler before him in confusion.

 

    “Whose child is that?” Thor asked bemusedly. He was _fairly_ certain that Loki didn’t have any small children at the moment, but one could never be sure with the Trickster.

 

    “I haven’t the faintest idea,” Loki replied distractedly without looking at him, trying to keep the food from the spoon in the girl’s mouth as opposed to... everywhere else, and being more-or-less successful. She would have definitely needed a bath at the end of the day were he anyone else, that much was certain. “The little green-haired witch left her in my care then disappeared without so much as a word of explanation,” He continued, glancing up for the briefest moment, “So I would assume it’s a relative of hers.”

 

    “I... see,” Thor replied, now more confused than before, “I’ll leave you to it, then.” Loki made a vague sound of acknowledgement and Thor shook his head then got what he came for and left, figuring he’d just ask Melina about it whenever he saw her next.

 

    Once the food was gone, Loki wiped the child’s face with a wet cloth and removed the rest of the mess from her clothes with his seidr. He picked her up and took her to his bedroom, where he set her down on the rug and stretched out before her, letting her play with his charms; she really did seem to have a particular liking for the wolf one, though the eight-legged horse was a close second.

 

    After a while Little Wolf decided to explore the room and she began crawling all over the place, deterred only by gentle pushes and pulls from Loki’s seidr whenever she wandered too close to anything dangerous. When she grew tired of that she returned to him, climbing into his lap and babbling excitedly at him, as though to tell him of all she’d discovered. When she began to look tired, Loki moved them to the bed and read to her until she fell asleep. He looked down at her with a fond smile then settled down for a nap himself.

 

 

    When Loki walked into the meeting room he could feel the stares following him as he went to his usual chair as far away from everyone else as possible. He set Little Wolf down on his lap, one arm propping her up and the other holding a bottle of warm milk, then looked up and waited for the meeting to begin as though nothing at all was different.

 

    Clint was the first to find his voice. “Uhh, Thor; what’s your brother doing with a baby?” He asked, not quite believing he’d ever have to do so.

 

    “I’m feeding her,” Loki replied casually, “That is what one generally does with a hungry child, is it not? Now can we get on with this? I have a book to finish.”

 

    The Avengers present all looked to Thor but he merely shrugged, seemingly completely unconcerned. Brushing it off, the meeting began, though more than a few glances were spared to the god and child at the far end of the table.

 

    Finally, Clint could contain himself no longer and turned to Loki, interrupting what Tony had been saying. “Okay, seriously; who’d you steal that kid from?” He asked accusingly.

 

    Loki gave him a level stare then rolled his eyes. “Now why, Barton, would I steal a child, of all things?” He asked back, setting the now empty bottle on the table and moving Little Wolf to his shoulder to burp her.

 

    Clint blinked at the action and the ease with which Loki did it then shook his head slightly. “Well, where’d she come from, then?”

 

    “Her mother, I would assume,” Loki replied amusedly, “Are you not aware of how this works? I wouldn’t have expected that from _you_ after, what, three children?”

 

    There were reluctant and hastily suppressed snickers around the room and Loki smirked. Clint rolled his eyes, blaming himself for actually expecting a serious answer from the Trickster. Just then Melina appeared in the room, apparently fresh out of a shower as her hair was still damp, and Little Wolf looked over at her and made an excited noise she grinned widely at.

 

    “Hi, baby!” Melina greeted quite giddily, walking over to stand next to Loki.

 

    “Wait, so she’s yours?” Steve asked.

 

    Melina looked towards the rest of the team. “Well, yeah,” She replied as though it were obvious.

 

    “You never told us you had a kid,” Tony said almost accusingly.

 

    “You never asked,” Melina replied with a shrug before turning back to Loki and her daughter. “Thanks for looking after her; it was kind of an emergency,” She said and reached out to take the toddler.

 

    Loki didn’t move to comply, merely narrowed his eyes slightly at her. “What kind of emergency would move you to leave your own child with a complete stranger?” He asked, sounding almost... scolding.

 

    Melina blinked, taken aback. “I didn’t leave her with a stranger; I left her with you,” She replied bemusedly.

 

    “Why in the world would you do _that?”_ Clint asked.

 

    “Because Thor told me he was good with kids,” Melina replied, though it sounded more like a question.

 

    “I did?” Thor asked confusedly, trying not to squirm at the look Loki was giving him at the revelation.

 

    “Yeah; like a month ago,” Melina replied, missing the sudden awkwardness, then turned back to Loki, “Can I have my daughter back now? It’s been a long day and I want to go home.”

 

    Loki still made no move to hand the girl over; in fact, he unconsciously held her closer to himself. “Why would you trust me; regardless of what Thor said?” He asked. He was stalling. He knew it. But he did it anyway. “All I’ve done is ignore and torment you since the day we met. So, why?”

 

    “I just do,” Melina replied with a shrug, well aware of what he was doing, “And clearly I made the right choice, because she doesn’t stay with anyone when I’m around.”

 

    “You don’t think I did something to her to cause that?” Loki asked. This was getting ridiculous, but he couldn’t help himself. It had been so long since he’d cared for a child; he’d forgotten how much he liked it.

 

    Melina smiled sympathetically even as Clint muttered something about he’d figured that was it. “Look, clearly you two have something,” She began somewhat teasingly, “So how about this: You give her back now, and I will bring her back to visit every other day.” When he still seemed reluctant she breathed a laugh. “Okay, fine; I’ll bring her every day,” She amended, “Except weekends. Weekends are completely mine; that’s when we travel.”

 

    Loki looked down at Little Wolf, who was dozing slightly after her meal, then sighed softly and handed her over to Melina. Melina kissed the top of her daughter’s head and murmured something to her then turned back to Loki, who was eyeing the girl almost longingly.

 

    “Say ‘bye-bye’, Dahlia,” Melina said to the toddler, holding her hand and waving at Loki with it. Dahlia babbled something resembling the words, causing them to smile, and then Melina teleported away.

 

    Loki turned back to the rest of the Avengers, who had been watching things unfold with everything from confusion to amusement. “Well? Weren’t you saying something I wasn’t paying attention to?” He asked Tony boredly, as though nothing at all had occurred.

 

    Tony shook his head. “Right...” He replied then continued on where he’d left off.

 

    As the meeting went on, Loki absently fiddled with the charms dangling from his wrist. There was a wolf, a serpent, a skull, an eight-legged horse, and two identical foxes; one charm for each of his children. Thor noticed a slight glint coming from Loki’s hands and looked over to see his brother doing something with his seidr. He was about to speak up to ask Loki what he was doing when Loki finished and tied another leather cord to his wrist. Before he rested his hands on the table and thus obscured Thor’s sight, the Thunderer noticed a new charm and he smiled slightly to himself.

 

    It was a little golden dahlia.

**Author's Note:**

> Bit of artistic license with the representation for Vali and Narfi. They don't actually have anything to do with foxes, but foxes are associated with tricksters practically everywhere, and the two _are_ Loki's kids after all, so... yeah. Screw it, I do what I want.
> 
> Feedback is greatly appreciated. :)


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